The Maryland Attorney General is looking into claims that a state legislator duped a woman into selling her home to him.
In a lawsuit filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court, Teresa Milligan accuses Maryland State Delegate William “Tony” McConkey, a Republican and a real estate broker, of foreclosure rescue fraud.
McConkey has denied Milligan’s claims that he somehow tricked Milligan into singing over her house to him.
Kevin Enright, a spokesman for Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, confirmed to MortgageDaily.com that the attorney general’s office is “looking into the matter.”
But Enright was careful to avoid using the word “investigation.”
“This is a complaint, of which we get thousands of years,” Enright said in an interview. “We’re hearing both sides of the story before we can determine if a violation or something more serious occurred, or if there was no violation at all.”
The Anne Arundel County Police Department originally considered looking into the matter then referred the case to the attorney general’s office, a department spokesperson confirmed.
McConkey claims he acquired the home legally and that Milligan was paying rent to live in it. But she fell behind on rent and he had been attempting to evict her.
Milligan has claimed that McConkey approached her earlier this year and offered to help save the equity in her home. She had fallen behind on her mortgage payments and owed more than $100,000.
McConkey agreed to buy the house and charge Milligan rent to live there. Milligan also agreed to borrow nearly $20,000 from McConkey to get caught up on her mortgage payments.
But McConkey and Milligan disagree about what happened next. He claims she agreed to sell the house and has the documents to prove it. She says she did not realize she was signing over the house, which McConkey eventually sold.
McConkey is identified in media reports as a lawyer who was disbarred in 1995 over a failed real estate deal in Prince George’s County in the late 1980s.
Maryland has a new law designed to crack down on foreclosure-rescue fraud, which McConkey voted for earlier this year. It created criminal penalties for violators that include a $10,000 fine and up to three years in jail.
